The primary mission of the Lehman College Foundation is to raise, invest and distribute private funds for scholarships, faculty support and other educational needs of Lehman College. The Foundation is an independent 501-c-3 Corporation governed by a volunteer board of community, business and education leaders as well as alumni of the College, and is managed by an executive director. In addition to its fundraising obligations, the Foundation serves as a window for the wider community through which to learn about and participate in the life of Lehman College.

The Foundation has a variety of giving programs - annual, capital/endowed and deferred - that can be tailored to individual donors' requirements. Both donor families and Lehman College can benefit from charitable lead and charitable remainder trusts, for example. To find out more, click here.

LEHMAN COLLEGE COMMUNITY SCHOLARSHIP

People who work at Lehman College perform a wide range of tasks with the single purpose of helping students succeed and complete their education. The Lehman College Foundation recently established the LEHMAN COLLEGE COMMUNITY SCHOLARSHIP to give the members of the College community, alumni and other friends an opportunity to help our students in an additional way: by contributing to an endowed scholarship fund. The scholarship is a single, endowed fund, and after it has reached the minimum threshold of $10,000, a portion of the earnings will be awarded.

Whether your primary role is to teach, counsel, advise, administer financial aid programs, conduct research or answer telephones, your gift to the LEHMAN COLLEGE COMMUNITY SCHOLARSHIP fund will help ease the financial burden on selected deserving students.

Anyone making a contribution to the LEHMAN COLLEGE COMMUNITY SCHOLARSHIP may use it as an opportunity to honor or memorialize a friend or family member.

Contributions To The Lehman College Community Scholarship Recognize These Individuals

Robert Johnson
James Kearns
James R. Kreuzer
Beverly Nygreen
Glen T. Nygreen
Jose Magdaleno, Sr.
Leonard Rockower
Anji Sun

GALA TO HONOR LEHMAN COLLEGE PRESIDENT RICARDO FERNÁNDEZ FOR FIFTEEN YEARS OF LEADERSHIP

AN EVENING OF CELEBRATION SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER 27th AT NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN

COLLEGE ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO BE HIGHLIGHTED

PROCEEDS WILL BENEFIT STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS

Join us on Thursday, October 27, 2005, at the New York Botanical Garden when the Lehman College Foundation sponsors a Gala dinner dance to raise funds for student scholarships. The event, with cocktails at 7:00 p.m. and dinner and dancing at 8:00 p.m., will feature the music of Peter Duchin & the Peter Duchin Orchestra.

Click here for an invitation!

Lehman College President
Ricardo R. Fernández

The event, in the beautiful Garden Terrace room at the Botanical Garden, will highlight the achievements of Lehman College and raise much-needed funds for scholarships. Ricardo R. Fernández will be recognized for his fifteen years of leadership as President, the longest tenure of a president in the senior colleges of the CUNY system. Crain’s New York Business has acknowledged him as one of New York City’s top 100 minority business leaders.

President Fernández has led Lehman College to be a major resource for educational, cultural and economic development in the Bronx and greater metropolitan area and one of the top Hispanic serving institutions in the Northeast. The College is one of only thirteen schools selected by a national research organization as an “Institution of Excellence” in the First Year of College. Recent highlights include the establishment of the CUNY Honors College at Lehman, the Small Business Development Center focusing on aiding entrepreneurs, and the High School of American Studies at Lehman College.

“We have succeeded admirably in our mission of preparing men and women from the Bronx and surrounding communities for worthwhile careers,” says Ricardo Fernández. “In many fields Lehman alumni have made an extraordinary difference.”

Lehman students, like so many from the City University of New York historically, often strive to achieve the American Dream by being the first in their family to attend college. Dr. Fernández noted, “State assisted institutions like Lehman must look beyond Albany and Washington to underwrite education. Tuition today is three times what it was when I became president in 1990. Most of our students need financial assistance to complete their education.”

Benefit Chairs and Committee members are comprised of national, regional and local philanthropists, educators, and community, business and elected leaders along with Lehman College faculty, retirees and alumni. To date, they include Anna Carbonell, Brooke Duchin, Aramina Ferrer, Michael Gill, Elias Karmon, George Jacobs, Serafin Mariel, Sarah Morgenthau, Sorosh Roshan, Ruth Westheimer and Rosanne Wille. Honorary Chairs currently include CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, Representative Elliot Engel, Representative Joseph Crowley, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion and performer Willie Colon.

For reservations or additional information, please contact:
The Lehman College Foundation Benefit Office
Tel: (212) 675-9474
Fax: (212) 675-9834
Email: sfrank@sualtd.com

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A Very Good Year

The Lehman College Foundation has reached our one half million dollar goal in 2004 thanks to our alumni, friends and the Lehman College Community. Our Title V match was a key to our success.

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March 11, 2004 – Lehman Honors Reception held at Lehman Brothers. Richard S. Fuld, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lehman Brothers hosted the Lehman Honors Reception at Lehman Brothers….more

May 22 and May 23, 2004 – Shirin Ebadi's Contributions to World Peace are celebrated. The Lehman College Foundation and the International Health Awareness Network (IHAN) honored 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi….more

October 13, 2004 – An Evening with Billy Collins.
Light from the Empire State Building shone through the skylight of the Dining Commons of the CUNY Graduate Center....more

The Lehman College Community Scholarship:
People who work at Lehman College perform a wide range of tasks with the single purpose of helping students succeed….more

 

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AN EVENING WITH BILLY COLLINS
Light from the Empire State Building shone through the skylight of the Dining Commons of the CUNY Graduate Center, where over 100 friends attended our October 13 reception, AN EVENING WITH BILLY COLLINS. John Hilliard was Chairperson of the benefit, which generated over $20,000 for The Billy Collins Scholarship at Lehman College. This endowed scholarship will support an outstanding student who has financial needs.

Special guest, Frank McCourt, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela’s Ashes, spoke with light-hearted envy about how easily Billy Collins seems to produce his work. McCourt wryly noted that Billy used the things closest to him (his dog, the kitchen table, his wife) as inspiration, and evoked both thought and laughter in the process.

Samina Shahidi McDonald, a former student of Billy Collins, now a graduate student and adjunct faculty member, spoke about Billy’s influence on her life as a writer. Read her moving tribute here. Poet Samuel Menashe was another guest. He had recently won the “Neglected Masters Award” from The Poetry Foundation, at its first Pegasus Awards ceremony in Chicago. Billy Collins received the Foundation’s “Mark Twain Poetry Award” for humor.

Professor Collins, who was Poet Laureate of the U.S. from 2001 to 2003 and is current Poet Laureate of New York State, confirmed Mr. McCourt's words when he addressed the group. He spoke of the long march from “lecturer” to CUNY Distinguished Professor of English in his 35 years at Lehman College , mentioning that President Fernández took away his freshman composition classes only after he was on the cover of Time Magazine. If that hadn't happened, he said, he would probably be correcting papers while at the podium talking to us. Fortunately, he had been spared, and so, as promised by Frank McCourt, we were treated to a reading of some of Billy Collins' humorous -- and thought-provoking -- poems.

 

Remarks by Samina Shahidi Mcdonald at "An Evening with Billy Collins"

Want to be invited to future Lehman Foundation Events?
Find out how.

 

Lehman College is home to more than 10,000 students, seven Distinguished Professors, the CUNY Honors College at Lehman, and the High School of American Studies at Lehman College. It is the first CUNY college to be accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, the second to offer a Bachelor of Business Administration program, and the third in the ranking of federal grants and awards received. In 2002 Lehman was named an "Institution of Excellence in the First College Years."

"Having been at Lehman College since its inception I have witnessed many radical changes in the life of the College... But one thing that has remained constant is its mission to provide a quality higher education to the varied population of New York City. "
Billy Collins, Distinguished Professor of English, U.S. Poet Laureate (2001-2003)

HERBERT H. LEHMAN
Few public servants have had as distinguished and productive a career as Herbert H. Lehman: four-term Governor of New York, first Director General of the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and two-term U.S. Senator. He and his wife of 53 years, Edith Altschul Lehman, believed deeply in democratic ideals and worked steadfastly and courageously to advance the cause of freedom. Both also shared a lifelong devotion to family and a strong and generous commitment to philanthropic causes.
"Herbert H. Lehman, Citizen and Statesman. He used wisdom and compassion as the tools of government."
Citation, Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1964